Strata mining-adjacent seam hardness indicator



STRATA MINING-ADJACENT SEAM HARDNESS INDICATOR Original Filed Nov. 18,1954 G. T. FELBECK Nw.l s, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR GEORGE T.FELBECK @mtoy Nov. 8, 1960 6.1'. Fl-:LBECK y 2,959,405

STRAIA MINING-ADJACENT SEAM HARDNESS INDICATOR Original Filed Nov. 18,1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 gli@ 4.

INVENTOR GEORGE T. FELBECK ATTORNEY United States Patent() STRATAMINING-ADJACENT SEAM HARDNESS INDICATOR George T. Felbeck, New York,N.Y., assignor to Union Carbide Corporation, a corporation of New YorkThis invention relates to selected earth strata mining by remotecontrol, and more particularly to improved means for indicating at aremote control station the relative hardness of a seam above or belowthe selected strata being mined before the mining machine cutters aredamaged in case the machine approaches a seam that is hard enough todamage such cutters.

The invention is very useful in providing information for controllingthe course of a mining machine of the type disclosed in the patentapplication of Alspaugh et al., Serial No. 353,932, tiled May l1, 1953,for a Remotely Controlled Mining System, now Patent No. 2,826,402.

In a continuons mining process using amachine controlled at a pointremote from the actual mining operation, it is desirable to know at thecontrol station if and when the machine approaches or crosses an upperor lower boundary of the strata or seam being mined.

An object of this invention is to provide information as soon aspossible at the remote control station by a meter change if the machineleaves, or is likely to leave a selected seam, and approaches or entersa seam of different character, either above or below it, before the mainhead cutters are damaged.

For example, in mining coal the machine should operate only in theselected coal seam or strata, and if it can be avoided, not engage arock strata immediately above or below such coal seam, else the cutterswill be damaged, resulting in costly loss of operating time while thedamage is being repaired.

This invention involves the use of a drum type cutter mounted yon abore-mining machine and so arranged as to cut selected strata in adirection normal tothe forward motion of the machine, a motor to drivesuch drum cutter, and a suitable meter located at the remote controlpoint of the mining machine connected to indicate the power supplied tosuch drum cutter drive motor. Changes in the meter reading indicatechanges in the power requirements of the motor, and hence changes in theforce required by the drum cutter to cut earth strata material adjacentto the bore made by the mining machine. As the machine bores forwardinto coal for example, such a drum cutter transversely mounted on top ofthe machine removes cusps of coal from the roof. The meter indicates themeasure of force required for cutting such coal. As the machineapproaches a layer of different hardness, such as rock in the top, forexample, before the main cutter head teeth hit a relatively hard layerthe drum cutter engages such harder layer. The resulting change in meterreading immediately indicates to the operator that the machine is movingupwardly toward such layer of different hardness. He immediately changesthe Vertical course of the machine so as to avoid such harder layer andremain in the selected coal strata.

A similar suitation exists with respect to the bottom drum cutter. Ifthe machine procedes on a downward course, the bottom drum cuttereventually breaks through the boundary of the coal into the bottom. Theresulting change in the lower drum cutter power requirement indi-jik icecates to the operator that such cutter has broken through the bottom ofthe coal seam, and he thereupon changes the vertical course of themachine so that the machine wlll avoid such bottom progress and progressonly in the desired coal seam.

Wear on the drum cutter teeth is reduced by having a few of the teeththereof longer than the others and thus concentrating wear in suchlonger teeth.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a view partly in section and partly in side elevation of amining system embodying the invention 1n use;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary top plan view of the machine in the bore-hole;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged cross sectional view of the boref hole between thefront cutters and the upper and lower drum cutters; and

Figs. 4 and 5 are enlarged fragmentary top plan views of the machineshowing the upper and lower drum cutters, respectively.

The mining machine 10 comprising a self-powered tractor-type body 11 isdesigned to bore a hole 12 in selected earth strata, such as a coal seam14, under the supervision of an operator in a control house 16 locatedoutside of such borehole, as disclosed in said application Serial No.353,932, continuously mining the material of such strata as the machineadvances a distance, for example, of 1000 feet-more or less-without theneed for a man to enter the hole.

The rotary front cutters 18 being laterally spaced leave cusps 20 ofselected strata material in the oor and roof of the bore-hole, which areremoved and such material recovered by the transversely disposedelongated upper and lower rotary drum cutters 22 and 24. The drumcutters are provided with radial teeth 25 some of which 25a are longerthan the others for the purpose of age to the other teeth.

The upper cutter 22 is mounted on arms 26 pivoted to a main (front) gearbox 28 by means of a transverse torsion shaft 30 that biases the upperdrum cutter 22 up wardly toward the roof of the bore-hole. Such frontgear box 28 is mounted on the body 11 for adjustment about a transversehorizontal axis 31 to control the vertical course of the machine. Theupper drum cutter 22 is driven by an electric motor 32 through suitablereducing gear means 34 carried bly the left one ofarms 26.

The lower drum cutter 24 is driven by a motor 36 through suitable meanscomprising a drive shaft 38 containing universal joints 40 and 42, adifferential gear 44, transverse drive shafts 46, and reduction gearmeans 48 disposed on each side of the machine. The ends of the lowerdrum cutter 24 are carried by gear boxes 50 that are mounted on the siderails 52 of the conveyors 54 which are disposed on either side of thelongitudinal center of the machine, and pivoted at 56 forself-adjustment as the contour of the oor varies. Thus, as the lowerdrum cutter 24 approaches a seam of hard stratum such as sandstone, forexample, below the selected strata being mined by the system, the torqueof the motor 36- increases, which fact is indicated by a meter 58located in the control house 16.

Similarly, a meter 60 that is electrically connected to the motor 32which drives the upper drum cutter 22 indicates when the latterapproaches a seam of relatively hard earth material above the roof ofthe hole 12. With such information, the operator can control thevertical course of the machine at the panel 62 to keep the progress ofthe mining operation Within the selected strata and avoid any damage tothe front cutters as well as to the Patented Nov. 8, IQGQ drum cuttersof the machine. Suitable vertical controls are disclosed in saidapplication Serial No. 353,932, and in the application of Heimaster etal., Serial No. 307,246, tiled August 30, 1952 for RemotelyControlledBore- Mining Machine-Automatic., Course Controller, now PatentNo. 2,761,666.

In this invention the drum cutters serve not only to cut (mine) asubstantial amount of the selected strata material, such as coal, butthey also servej at the same.

time to supply information as tothe relative hardness of the materialbeing cut much more quickly and with less chance of damage to thecutters than has been possible in the past, because the load on a drumcutter (about 7 feet long) increases rather rapidly as it approaches aharder stratum than coal, for example, and thus indicates possibledamage to the cutters to the operator at the control4 station beforeany` actual damage occurs` to theautter teeth even in the front cutters.

This application is a continuation of our application Serial No.469,586, filed Novemberl 18, 1954, now Patent No. 2,878,000.

I claim:

1. In a system for miningv selected earth strata material by remotecontrol, the combination with a boremining machine comprising verticallyadjustable cooperative face cutting means and loading means adaptedautomatically to cut and loadselected strata material as it is minedinto continuous conveyor. means that removes such material as it ismined through and from the resulting bore-hole made by said machine,said cooperative means including a plurality of laterally spaced rotaryfrontv cutters and a horizontal drum cutter having radial teeth disposedto cut at a xed but relatively close distance behind such face andrecover residual material of the se lected strata includingsubstantially all cusp material left by` said face cutting meansadjacent one of the vertical boundaries of such bore hole, a drive motorexclusively for said drum cutter, means for energizing said drive`motor, and indicating means responsive to any changeV in the demand onsaid energizing means` by said drive motor in response to the actualcutting loadY on such drum cutter, associated with said'energizing meansfor indicating continuously such change before damage to the facecutting means occurs, said indicating means being positioned at acontrol station located remotely with respect to said machine,` andremote control means at such station for resetting the vertical courseof the machine in accordance therewith by vertical adjustment saidfacercuttng means to keep the machine within the se lected earth stratacharacterized in that means are provided supporting said drum cutter onand for vertical movement with, and relatively to said face cuttingmeans, whereby said drum cutter is kept resilently in contact with theroof or oor of the hole even when the face cutting means is adjustedvertically away from such root or iloor in operation of'themachine.

2. In a bore miningmachine the` combination comprising a self-poweredtractor-type body, a front gear box mounted on said body` for verticaladjustment about a transverse-horizontal axis, front rotary cuttersmounted on said gear box for rotation about transversely spacedlongitudinal-horizontal axes, means for driving said front cutters inunison through said front gear box, longitudinal continuous conveyorsmounted within said body on either side of theY longitudinal centerthereof and extending under said front gear box for picking up selectedearth strata material as it is mined by said front cutters, transverselydisposed upper and lower drum cutters mounted above and below said gearbox for relative vertical adjustment with respect thereto forcontinuously removing substantially all cusps of the strata materialbeing mined from the roof and oor of the bore-hole made by said frontcutters, separate electric motors for individually driving each of saiddrum cutters, electric power supply circuits for energizing said motors,the load on said drum cutters that is reected in the demand by saidmotors for electric power supplied by said circuits serving as a measureof the relative hardness of the strata engaged thereby before the frontcutters are damaged, instruments connected to said power supply circuitsof each drive motor of said drum cutters to indicate such relativehardness, and means for controlling the vertical course of the machineby adjusting said gear box about its axis to keep it within selectedearth strata as revealed by said instruments, said drum cuttersbeingbiased outwardly from said gear box so as to remain in contact withthe corresponding roof and floor `of the hole regardless of the verticaladjustment of said gear box.

3. In a mining machine the combination with vertically adjustable facecutting means, of a transverse drum cutter mounted thereon, a separatemotor for driving said drum cutter, and means for indicating therelative hardness of strata being cut by said drum cutter; ofmeanssupporting said drum cutter and motor on said machine comprising armspivoted to said machine, means supporting said motor between said arms;said drum cutter being carried by the outer reaches of said arms; andmeans for urging said drum cutter about the pivot of said arms.

4. In a mining machine, the combination of a support, arms pivoted tosaid support for movement about an axis extending transversely withrespect thereto, a drum cutter carried by said arms formovementtherewith about such axis, means for driving said` drum cutter,resilient biasing means between the arms and said support and means forindicating the relative hardness of strata being cut by saiddrum'cutter.

References Cited in the le of this `patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,641,007 Johansen Oct; 11, 1927 2,694,562 Snyder et al. Nov.V 16,1954

2,699,328 Alspaugh et al. Jan. 11, 1955 2,734,731 Cartlidge et al Feb.1'4, 1956 2,826,402 Alspaugh etal Mar. 11, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 688,227Great Britain Mar. 4, 1953 ne De

